My Experience in Japan

Petar Marčinković (University of Rijeka)

I prefer spending my summers in my home town Zadar. I always thought that there is nothing special about other countries or cities and that Zadar is the most beautiful city in the whole world...but when I found out about the chance to go to Japan, I knew that I had to take it and visit the country that always amazed me with its history, culture and people. And Japan didn't disappoint me. On the contrary I fell in love with Japan and after three and a half weeks there I was really sorry that I had to leave. I still miss all the people that I met there and all the places that I visited!

I applied for the exchange also to see the best experts in the field of neurosurgery doing their work with modern techniques and devices. I never expected that I will also meet such wonderful people as I did on the department of neurosurgery. I had a great time with them and all of them gave a lot of time in explaining the procedures in English. They were great at it and I really did understand everything that they said. I really miss them because they are the best department in whole Japan and also they are the best people that I have ever met. I really hope that I'll see them soon again.

My clerkship was filled with great time, memories and great people. I visited a lot of cities and towns and I was astonished by their beauty. The clash between modern buildings (skyscrapers) and untouched parks with old temples is just amazing. I especially liked the Osaka Tower. I always loved the samurai so it was a dream comes true for me. I also visited a lot of other places with my two Croatian colleagues and also with some of the students of Hyogo College of Medicine who were great to us. They were always there to help during the whole our exchange. We have seen Nara (shika), Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.

Also I learned some Japanese phrases thanks to the doctors at the department of neurosurgery.

All in all, my exchange program was great and I was really sorry that it had to come to an end. I really hope that I could visit Japan again and see all those wonderful people again. I already said to everyone that I know that they have to take this exchange program and pick the department of neurosurgery.

Best wishes to all of you and thank you for a wonderful time. I hope I'll see you all again!

P.S. My computer crashed and unfortunately I lost all of my pictures from Japan (don't worry I'll just copy them from Edita) so at this time I don't have any pictures with me. Instead I will send you a few pictures of Zadar and maybe one day you'll visit.